


Fair and Square

by fragilecapricornpanic



Series: PRE-WRITTEN, Pre-Canon Sibling Encounters [11]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Allison Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Angst, Angst and Humor, Ben Hargreeves Deserves Better, Canon Compliant, Domestic Fluff, Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Ghost Ben Hargreeves, Good Parent Allison Hargreeves, Humor, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus Hargreeves Needs Help, One Shot, One Shot Collection, POV Alternating, Parent Allison Hargreeves, Pre-Canon, Protective Allison Hargreeves, Protective Diego Hargreeves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:07:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27067633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragilecapricornpanic/pseuds/fragilecapricornpanic
Summary: Allison’s brothers were clearly having some sort of muffled bickering match down the line. It was tempting to just rumor them into shutting up. “Claire’s waiting.”“Now you’re making her wait.” Diego hypocritically reprimanded Klaus, pointing to the phone at his ear. “I’mmaking her wait?! You threw your keys at my nose!” Klaus yelled incredulously, still melodramatically rubbing at his face. The thought of their niece waiting for them to shut up was depressing. Diego knew how excited Claire got when he had met her, she was likely just as excited to speak to Klaus.
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & Diego Hargreeves, Allison Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Claire & Allison Hargreeves, Claire & Diego Hargreeves, Claire & Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Allison Hargreeves
Series: PRE-WRITTEN, Pre-Canon Sibling Encounters [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1869709
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50





	Fair and Square

**Author's Note:**

> (Five isn’t in this he’s just mentioned)  
> Claire is very little in this btw

“Say anything to freak her out, and I’ll stab you.” Diego pointed to Klaus threateningly as he punched Allison’s number into the landline - shielding the dial from Klaus so he couldn’t get access to her number. He’d justifiably lost that trust several years ago.

“If anyone’s gonna freak her out, it’s the guy who goes around threatening to murder people!” Klaus exclaimed pettily, leaning over the couch to try and get a peek at their sister’s number. She had so much money, it was just greedy to deprive Klaus of it. Drugs were incredibly expensive. Diego shuffled to cover the phone further, giving him a disapproving scowl. “I never said I was going to _murde_ \- Allison, hey...”

Furrowing her brow with confusion, Allison was uncertain what kind of conversation she’d just interrupted. “I see we’re keeping things PG.” she dryly murmured, looking over her shoulder to an extremely excited Claire. It was precious. Allison’s brothers were clearly having some sort of muffled bickering match down the line. It was tempting to just rumor them into shutting up. Allison figured she should at least _try_ to use her words instead. “Claire’s waiting.” 

“Now you’re making her wait.” Diego hypocritically reprimanded Klaus, pointing to the receiver at his ear. “ _I’m_ making her wait?! You threw your keys at my nose!” Klaus yelled incredulously, still melodramatically rubbing at his face. Diego bit back a smirk at his brother’s suffering. The thought of their niece waiting for them to shut up was depressing. Diego knew how excited Claire had gotten when he’d finally met her, she was likely just as excited to properly speak to Klaus for the first time. The poor kid didn’t know what was coming. “Sorry, I’ll hand you over.” Diego muttered to his sister, causing his brother to excitedly scramble over the couch to grab the receiver. Diego dodged away from Klaus when Allison began to speak again. He held up a finger to make his brother pause his eager gesturing for the phone.

Twisting the cord around her finger, Allison felt a knot twisting in her stomach too. “Are you sure this’ll be okay?” Allison nervously asked, worried about Klaus being Klaus. She loved her brother, and knew he would be great with Claire, but he was obviously going to be under the influence in some shape or form - which was precisely why they were properly meeting via the phone. “It’ll be fine.” Diego reassured her, sounding understandably awkward to be discussing Klaus in front of him. “I’m sure you could just use a rumor if needs be, just like with everything else.” her elder brother suggested with an unbelievable quantity of snark in his tone. Allison rolled her eyes and scoffed with amused offence. “Just give him the damn phone before I change my mind.” She decided she’d put it on loud speaker once Claire came over, just to be safe. Allison was aware how bizarrely vulgar her brother’s rantings could be. Especially if he was extremely out of it, like he so often was.

Klaus snatched the phone from Diego’s hand with great glee, desperate to finally talk with his niece. “Hi there, stranger.” He moaned with disappointment when it was his sister who spoke. “Allie, I love you and everything, but can you put Claire on the line?” Klaus whined, pouting as if Allison could actually see him. “How’re things going?” his sister responded warily, ignoring his request entirely. She was probably checking he wasn’t high off his ass, which kind of hurt - even though Klaus mostly understood why she was doing it. He wouldn’t speak to Claire if he was that high, it was frustrating Allison would even worry about that.

“I’m _fabulous_ , I just shot up a speedball and chugged an entire bottle of whiskey.” Klaus deadpanned, irritated by the distrust. The less people trusted him the more he was inclined to give them a reason not to, purely out of spite. Diego scoldingly shoved Klaus in reply to his comment. “That wouldn’t even surprise me.” Allison sarcastically teased, the sound of his niece babbling in the background growing rapidly nearer to the phone. “Uncle Klaus?!” Claire practically shrieked down the line. Klaus shoved a hand through Ben to get him to shuffle away a little. Ben had his head so close to the phone to eavesdrop that Klaus would’ve been able to feel him breathing down his neck... if Ben could actually breathe.

—

Allison beamed at how much Claire was loving this conversation. It was a shame it couldn’t be in person... it was also a shame they couldn’t be like a real family to begin with. Claire deserved more people in her life who loved her. “That is _not_ true, don’t listen to him!” Allison gasped, outraged Klaus was exposing her embarrassing childhood secrets. “Your mommy is a _liar!_ ” Klaus dramatically declared, making Claire giggle excessively. “He deserved it.” Allison admitted nostalgically, remembering how incensed Five had been when he discovered she’d rumored him into temporarily forgetting how to do math. He shouldn’t have been so petty with his spatial jumps, Allison wouldn’t have done it otherwise. She had called dibs on the last pancake, fair and square. “Yeah, Uncle Five was a little sh-“ Klaus cut himself off with a startled yelp when Diego presumably threw something at him. Claire animatedly chortled, adoring the theatrics. Allison chuckled too, glad their elder brother was there to stop him cursing. “He was a little _sh_ neaky boy, is what I was saying.” Klaus did an atrocious impression of what Allison assumed was _supposed_ to be Sean Connery.

”Can you come visit like Uncle Diego dided?” Claire endearingly begged, staring at the phone wistfully from Allison’s lap. “I came to visit when you were a little baby, Claire Bear.” Klaus reminded her lightly, but Allison knew that wouldn’t mean a thing to Claire since she obviously couldn’t remember it. Allison had only allowed Klaus to come under the pretence that he was sober, which it turned out had been a lie. She didn’t want a repeat of that. “I want you to visit now I’m a big girl.” Claire huffed with dissatisfaction, glumly propping her cheek up with her hand. Allison thought she looked absolutely adorable, but utterly heartbreaking at the same time.

“That’s up to your mommy...” Klaus mumbled apologetically, which made Allison cringe due to the pressure being placed on her. “Your uncle’s very busy. He doesn’t have the time to visit.” Allison gently fibbed to Claire, stroking her face lovingly. It was impossible to explain this situation to her daughter. Claire couldn’t understand, and frankly Allison didn’t want her to be able to understand. She felt guilty to disappoint both Claire _and_ Klaus, but she knew she had to prioritise her daughter’s wellbeing. It was just too risky to have Klaus meet Claire whilst he was determined to stay on the path of intense insobriety. It had only been two months since Allison last had to pay for yet another rehab stay. She was considering just setting up a standing order with the facility out of convenience.

Sighing with profound disappointment, Klaus wished he was capable of prioritising anything above being high. Especially for the sake of his niece, not to mention Ben actually being able to see her. Although his dead brother couldn’t interact with their niece, Klaus knew it would mean a lot to Ben to be around her. He still couldn’t do it. It was a sacrifice Klaus wasn’t willing to make, as selfish as he knew that was. “Yeah... I’m too busy. Sorry Claire.” Klaus drawled depressively, feeling terrible to let his niece and Ben down. “Maybe I could call again?” he dispiritedly offered, knowing this was as close as he was going to get to Claire. “With Uncle Diego.” Klaus quickly elaborated, since apparently his siblings felt he needed to be goddamn supervised. He was an addict, not an asshole. Well... maybe he was an asshole too, but obviously he wouldn’t be like that around Claire.

Playing with her daughter’s beautiful hair, Allison nodded when Claire pleadingly looked up to her. “Mommy said yes!” her daughter exclaimed with a massive grin, sounding like she’d just won the lottery. “As long as Uncle Klaus doesn’t keep tattling on all of my secrets.” Allison jokingly warned, making both him and Claire giggle mischievously. “Can I speak to your mommy alone for a minute?” Allison looked up to the ceiling with despair, bracing herself for some form of begging. She refused to enable him, she’d already done that enough times.

“Claire, can you go play for a sec?” Allison requested tenderly, brushing Claire’s curls from her face. “No, I want to talk to Uncle Klaus.” Claire crossed her arms confrontationally, stubbornly staying on Allison’s knee. This was going to end in a tantrum, Allison could just see it happening. They’d been growing more frequent, which Allison knew probably wasn’t helped by her always solving them with rumors. She leaned closer to her daughter’s ear, not wanting Klaus to hear. ”I heard a rumor...” Allison whispered, her sound waves swirling into Claire’s teeny ears “...that you went in your room to play.” Her daughter immediately jumped down and happily toddled off to her room. Why would Allison try to deal with things like ordinary people when it was as simple as that?

“You know I’m not going to give you money.” Allison quietly informed Klaus, which made him scowl. He knew he had a habit of bugging Allison for cash, but he was clearly thinking of Claire at this precise moment. Plus, she had a shit load of money! “It’s not about that, it’s about Claire.” Klaus mumbled grumpily, already predicting what his sister’s answer was going to be. Allison sighed exhaustedly down the line. “ _Please_ , Allie. I’ll... I’ll cut down! I’ll barely be high, I’ll basically be sober. She won’t even be able to tell, she’s just a little kid. She doesn’t even know what drugs are!” Klaus persuasively rambled, trying to ignore the judgemental glares from both brothers. “I can’t have this conversation with you again, Klaus.”

Diego snidely snickered as Klaus’ eyes lit up like flashlights, clearly being rumored into something. Diego saw that coming. Allison was completely incapable of doing almost anything without using her power. She was practically as much of an addict as Klaus. His brother hung up the phone in his trance, and then looked down at it with disorientated confusion. “Did that bitch just rumor me?!”

**Author's Note:**

> The story previous is when Diego met her
> 
> Some Lies Are Good, Ghost Uncle and Just Chilling (arranged chronologically before the Diego story) are more about Ben and Klaus meeting baby Claire


End file.
